But help is at hand, as there are some ways of reducing the cost of cramming yourself on to the carriage of a completely full train that’s probably late to get into London.

The fares have gone up by 1.1 per cent, which is the lowest rise since 2010, but there are some tricks you can use to save a bit of cash.

Three simple tricks to paying less for your train tickets

1. How you pay

Firstly, make sure you check to see if you’re eligible for any discount railcards, which are available for anyone under 26, over 60, disabled or with a family (discounts only if you travel with at least one child).

If you’re travelling with the same person,you can also get money off when you travel together – although only after 9.30am, so have a word with the boss and see if you can find someone else coming from Reading who’s willing to start late.

Cards cost £30 and you can save a third of the price on adult tickets (and 60% on children’s fares) and work all around the country.

The next way to save when you pay, is to get cashback.

You can knock up to five per cent off the price of an annual ticket (up to the value of £2,000) with a top cashback credit card and three per cent off the price of any other ones you buy with another card – although that card comes with a £24 fee, you should more than make that up in cashback.

Beware though, you need to have money available pay off these cards in their interest -free period or interest charged on the balance will outweigh any cashback savings.

While you’re paying check to see if you can use a loyalty card – Nectar cards work on Virgin Trains and Great Western Railway for example – getting a bit extra back at no cost.

On the flip side of this, you can use loyalty points or vouchers to get more for your money, so Tesco ClubCard vouchers can be used with train ticket site RedSpottedHanky to get twice the reward (so a £10 voucher is worth £20 for example).

Yearly Season Tickets

£4,228

Reading to London Paddington

£3,612

Wokingham to London Waterloo

£3,508

Bracknell to London Waterloo

Yearly Season Tickets

2. When you buy

Ticket machines do not tell passengers of discount rail fares

Annual and monthly tickets can save you a lot of money, but rather depend on having enough cash at the start of the year to get on..

The good news is that many companies offer an interest-free loan for your train ticket - ask if there’s a scheme like that available where you work.

If not, a 0 per cent purchase card will allow you to buy now, and spread the cost interest-free over as long as two years. Just make sure you set up a direct debit to pay it off in time, as otherwise you could be hit with considerable interest charges.

Buying early can also save you a huge amount on the price of a train fare, whether for single trips or even as a regular commuter.

The best advice seems to be to start looking about 12 weeks in advance, and you could see savings of as much as 80% on the cost of travel – meaning more than £100 off the price of a London to Edinburgh ticket for example.

If you can’t book 10 weeks in advance, you can still make big savings by booking even just a week early, so if you have any journeys planned, check now .

3. Split it

Train tickets are priced in a highly complicated way. That means two singles are often cheaper than a return (especially if you know the time of the train you’re getting back) and short journey cheaper per mile than longer ones.

This has led to a series of anomalies in pricing that can be exploited by people in the know. The best way of doing this is to split up your ticket. For example, it can be cheaper to book a ticket from Liverpool to Crewe, then Crewe to London, than to simply buy a ticket from Liverpool to London.

It’s perfectly legal as long as the train you’re on stops at the stations you’ve bought tickets from. Sound complicated to work out? Well fortunately Martin Lewis has made a program that will check for you , while Trainsplit.com also let’s you see the relative costs.

More top tips for cheap train travel can be found in the Daily Mirror’s guide here .